Not only did India vote against the Maldives, but the south Asian giants had also worked to ensure that its Indian Ocean neighbour lost the recent elections for the UN Security Council non-permanent seat, it has emerged.
Indonesia defeated the Maldives in the only contested election for a seat on the Security Council starting January 1 to join the UN's most powerful body along with Germany, Belgium, South Africa and the Dominican Republic.
Despite huge confidence by the Maldives government to pull off a successful bid, Indonesia triumphed with an overwhelming 144 to 46 votes.
There had already been major doubts whether India would vote for the Maldives, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Jakarta days before the vote where Indonesia had officially sought India's backing for its bid for the UN seat.
India was reportedly doing a serious rethink despite committing support to Maldives earlier.
But Maldives ambassador to India Ahmed Mohamed had later thanked India for its support despite losing the election.
However, India's 'Times of India' quoted diplomatic sources saying that "not only did India not vote for the Maldives but also worked to ensure that the latter's core base of small island nations was considerably eroded."
Bilateral ties between the two countries had soured after Maldives President Abdulla Yameen Abdulla Gayoom in February declared state of emergency following an order by the country’s Supreme Court to release a group of opposition leaders convicted in widely criticised trials.
Recently Maldives' chief government lawmaker Ahmed Nihan Hussain Manik was denied entry into Chennai while Maldives has reportedly put a squeeze on issuing work permits for Indian expatriates working in the island nation.
